Many vehicles, particularly motor vehicles such as cars and trucks, are equipped with radios. Drivers and occupants of the vehicles often listen to music, talk shows, news programs, and other radio programs while in their vehicles. As technology has progressed, new innovations in radio broadcasting have emerged as well, such as satellite radio and high definition radio, in addition to conventional AM (amplitude modulation) and FM (frequency modulation) radio broadcasting.
A common feature in conventional vehicles is the ability for an occupant of the vehicle to determine a number of radio presets. For example, the driver of the vehicle may have six FM radio stations and six AM radio stations that the driver prefers to listen to, and thus the driver may set each FM radio station and each AM radio station to one of six buttons (where each button corresponds to a preset slot) that, when pressed, allows the driver to jump to that radio station without having to tune the radio to the number corresponding to the desired station. In this example, the six preset slots may correspond to different sets of preset information depending on which mode the radio is set to, i.e., FM or AM.
Relatively newer vehicles may be equipped with telematics units, which provide subscribers with connectivity to a telematics service provider (TSP). The TSP provides the subscriber with an array of services ranging from emergency call handling and stolen vehicle recovery to diagnostics monitoring and turn-by-turn navigation. Telematics units are often provisioned and activated at a point of sale when a subscriber purchases a telematics-equipped vehicle. Upon activation, the telematics unit can be utilized to provide a subscriber with the telematics services.
Thus, it is an object in part to provide a system and method for utilization of a telematics unit in connection with a vehicle's radio preset slotting feature, such that the subscriber experience is improved and new commercial opportunities are presented. However, while this is an object underlying certain implementations of the invention, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to systems that solve the problems noted herein. Moreover, the inventors have created the above body of information for the convenience of the reader and expressly disclaim all of the foregoing as prior art; the foregoing is a discussion of problems discovered and/or appreciated by the inventors, and is not an attempt to review or catalog the prior art.